A doctor or other health care provider can write a prescription for medication. Oftentimes, the prescription is written on a special prescription pad with instructions that the doctor signs. The prescription is taken to a pharmacy for review and filling and a pharmacist reviews the prescription for interactions and side effects. The pharmacist and/or a technician fills and labels the prescription and performs a double check to make sure there are no errors before the patient obtains the medication.
Electronic prescriptions can be accessed and updated over a network. For example, a prescription can be sent from a hospital directly to a patient's pharmacy without relying on a handwritten prescription, thus preventing loss or theft. The patient can then obtain the prescribed medications from the pharmacy. Automated systems are sometimes used to alert doctors and pharmacists to potential interactions and side effects. Some computer systems containing patient information can check for allergies and appropriate dosing.
Computerized inventory tracking systems are also used in pharmacies. The systems can keep count of medications for accurate bookkeeping, ease of reordering, and to limit access to narcotics and other controlled drugs. When a medication is taken from inventory, for example, to fill a prescription, the count of the medication is decremented in the inventory. Computerized inventory tracking systems can be used to provide data to reorder medications. For example, a pharmacy buyer prints a list of medications that have low inventory and orders more. Computerized inventory systems can be used to provide inventory data for analysis, for example, to track usage trends.
Point of sale systems are used to manage transactions in retail environments, such as a retail pharmacy. A cashier can sell a filled prescription to a customer and use the point of sale system to accept payments such as cash or credit cards. The point of sale system can calculate sales tax and add the appropriate amount to the cost of the medication. Some point of sale systems include bar code scanners, which a cashier can use to check out items quickly and efficiently.
Transaction clearing systems are used to manage transactions from point of sale systems. Some transaction clearing systems reconcile payments with financial institutions and reconcile inventory with an inventory system. For example, a customer has a prescription filled at a pharmacy and purchases the medication at a point of sale system. The transaction clearing system can clear the purchase with an automated clearing house and can update inventory.